Chris Herren relates 14 years from brightest NBA dream to broken junkie, and back

Former Celtic Chris Herren talks with the sophomore class at Wachusett Regional High School about the dangers of alcohol and drug use and other harmful behaviors.
Patricia Roy photo When former Celtic Chris Herren strode into the auditorium at Wachusett Regional High School Friday, Jan. 4, he was greeted with all the cheers and “woots” of approval that a former pro athlete and regional favorite could expect.

A legendary standout at Fall River’s Durfee High School, highly recruited college athlete and NBA short-timer, Herren spent an hour speaking to the WRHS sophomore class.

But he wasn’t reliving glory days. He offered instead a brutally honest cautionary tale against the drug use, casual at first and then desperate, that killed his promising athletic career.

As an 18-year-old, Herren appeared in Sports Illustrated and was the focus of well-regarded sports book, “Fall River Dreams.” He moved from brilliant college prospect to an abbreviated season at Boston College, where he missed most of his freshman season after breaking his wrist in his first game.

Although he admitted drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana in high school, his cocaine use started in his own dorm room during his brief stay at BC.

Herron tried the drug thinking it was going to be a one-time deal. Instead, “it was a 14-year nightmare.’’

It was during his Boston College stint that Herren first began failing drug tests. He was asked to leave within four months of his arrival on campus. It was a first for the young star; the administration made it clear they would not compromise the school’s values to accommodate Herren’s drug use.

Herren got a second chance at Fresno State University under famed coach Jerry Tarkanian. He had a successful sophomore season and was assigned mentors for drugfree living.

By his junior year, Herren said he got cocky and failed another drug test. On television, he admitted to cocaine dependency. After a month-long rehab, he returned to the Fresno team and a successful season.

During his senior year, he married his long-time girlfriend Heather when she became pregnant with their son. At the end of the year, he was picked up by the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the NBA draft.

He was 21 years old, with the prospect of making $1.5 million for at least the next five years in front of him.

“It was a dream come true,” he said.

He chose to celebrate by “smoking blunts, banging Budweisers and doing lines of cocaine for 13 hours straight.”

Around the same time, he began using Oxycontin, working his way up to using 1,600 milligrams a day.

Herren played in 45 games for the Nuggets, then went to the Celtics under coach Rick Pitino.

Only a handful of New Englanders ever got to wear the Celtics green, Pitino told him, putting Herren into a very elite group.

Herren continued his drug use during his Celtics days, leaving a ticket at every game for his dealer. On the first day that he started for the Celtics, Herren ran out into Causeway Street traffic, dressed in his team warm-up suit, to meet his dealer, getting back into Boston Garden just two minutes before the starting lineup was announced.

Herren suffered a season-ending injury, a fractured collar bone and a torn rotator cuff, got released by the Celtics and went off to a checkered career on teams in Italy, Poland, Turkey, Iran and China.

He picked up a heroin habit along the way.

There were moments of desperation when he tried to get hold of narcotics in countries where holding them meant a life sentence in prison. A trip back to the U.S. after he blew his European opportunities led to a drug binge, a failed suicide attempt, time at a homeless shelter and many more times when he let his family down.

One night, a college buddy offered the drug lure again. Herren, sick of himself at that point, turned him down.

“It was the first time I ever said ‘no’ and it saved my life,” he said.

The next day, Herren learned that his buddy had been shot in the head in his own home over a $400 drug deal gone bad.

Shortly afterward, back in Fall River, Herren suffered an overdose, his second, crashing his car into a cemetery fence.

His pulse was stopped, his skin gray and two EMTs were about to pronounce him dead, when a cop at the scene insisted they keep resuscitation efforts going. Herron and the cop went to high school together.